Having already run across the state, Republican gubernatorial candidate Randy Boyd is announcing a 95-hour “sprint to election day.” The former economic and community development commissioner plans 20 public events across the state leading up to his primary night party in his hometown of Knoxville on Thursday.

“The early vote is in. And now the biggest day is only hours away – It’s rally time! The team that finishes the strongest down the stretch will win, and I pledge to give it everything I’ve got these last few days,” said Randy Boyd.

“But he wasn’t about to be torpedoed by more-conservative-than-thou demagoguery,” the paper editorialized. “When U.S. Rep. Diane Black came out with an attack ad questioning his conservative credentials, he fired back.”

Aconservative website that has long targeted Randy Boyd’s gubernatorial bid is raising questions about ties between one of its favored Republican candidates, Bill Lee, and a poll that suggested he had surged to a 6-point lead over Boyd.

The Tennessee Star notes that Lee’s general consultants Blake Harris and Jordan Gehrke have links to JMC Analytics and Polling, the company that released what it billed as a “completely independent” poll in the Tennessee governor’s race this week. Harris and Gehrke are partners in Vertical Strategies and Victory Phones respectively, companies that share a Grand Rapids, Mich., address with another company called Advictory. Lee’s campaign has spent heavily on Advictory and Victory Phones — a company that has been listed as an auto-dialer for JMC polls in other states (the company did not disclose its auto-dialer for the Tennessee poll).

Boyd campaign CEO Chip Saltsman immediately dismissed the poll as “bogus” and said it looked like a “publicity stunt by the Lee campaign to try and artificially create some momentum.”

JMC founder John Couvillon told the Chattanooga Times Free Press that he has no clients in Tennessee and decided to poll the GOP primary as a “completely independent project” because there were few other public polls run in the state.

“No one should fall for a deeply-flawed poll cooked up at the 11th hour by some unknown pollster,” said Boyd campaign CEO Chip Saltsman.

It’s not the first time Saltsman has railed against the methodology of a poll promoting one of Boyd’s GOP rivals. In March he charged that a poll touted by the Diane Black campaign showing her with a 14-point lead over Boyd was “bogus.” Saltsman used that same term to describe the new JMC Analytics poll.

Randy Boyd got the dominoes falling when he declared that he would not attend a televised Republican gubernatorial debate in Knoxville on Sunday because of an unspecified scheduling conflict. Beth Harwell and Diane Black soon followed suit in deciding not to go. Reporter Cari Wade Gervin has scoured the Twitterverse to reveal that “a pricey steakhouse dinner” in Memphis may have been the reason for Boyd dropping out of the debate.

.@randyboyd’s “scheduling conflict” that led him to drop out of last night’s GOP debate, which was eventually cancelled? A pricey steakhouse dinner in Memphis. pic.twitter.com/3W5gQa6B4F

WATE-TV reports that the Boyd campaign is citing a “scheduling conflict” for sitting out the July 22 debate to be held at Pellissippi State Community College in Knoxville.

Most of the debates and candidate forums so far have been largely staid affairs, thought the atmosphere might have been different this time following the influx of negative TV ads, and because candidates desperate to gain traction might be more willing to take shots at each other.

The Pellissippi State debate is scheduled to start at 8 p.m. Eastern between Democrats Karl Dean and Craig Fitzugh, followed by the GOP debate between Beth Harwell, Bill Lee, and Diane Black at 9 p.m.

Knoxville businessman Randy Boyd’s latest attack ad portrays Republican gubernatorial rival Diane Black as being part of the “D.C. Swamp” and the narrator refers to her as “D.C. Diane” five times in 30 seconds.

Transcript: “A 20-year professional politician, D.C. Diane Black. In the D.C. Swamp, D.C. Diane’s net worth increased by more than $40 million. While enriching herself, D.C. Diane worked to raise our taxes by $160 million, while cutting her taxes by millions. And as budget chair, D.C. Diane let the debt soar to $21 trillion. D.C. Diane Black: Out for herself, no us.”

As some of our commenters have alluded to, U.S. Rep. Diane Black has a new ad out hitting fellow Republican gubernatorial hopeful Randy Boyd for his company’s decision to open offices in Ireland and the Cayman Islands, a scheme known as “Double Irish” that allows U.S. companies to avoid taxes domestically.